Jamila Woods returns with “ZORA” from new album LEGACY! LEGACY!

Jamila Woods | photo by Bradley Murray | courtesy of the artist

Chicago singer-songwriter and #NPRSlingshot alum Jamila Woods returns this spring with LEGACY! LEGACY!, her sophomore album and followup to 2016’s acclaimed HEAVN. The album will be released via Jagjaguwar Records on May 10th, and finds Woods in a lyrically poetic place moreso then ever, as well as a collaborative one; the album features contributions from her fellow Chicagoan Saba, her prior tourmates in theMIND, as well as Nitty Scott, Nico Segal, and more. 

Woods has provided a taste of the album with the song “ZORA,” a soaring rocker about embracing the complexities of identity. Says Woods:

My weaponry is my energy… An antidote for the feeling of being judged on first glance. A salve for when people think they know you better than you know yourself. It’s about refusing to be essentialized and not allowing your identity to be put in a box. You contain multitudes. You are ever-evolving. A song to get free from stereotypes & assumptions, inspired by the writing of Zora Neale-Hurston.”

The music video for the song, directed by Vincent Martell, was filmed in the archives of Chicago’s Johnson Publishing, a black-owned company known for Ebony Magazine, among other, and finds Woods and her band playing live, surrounded by artifacts from the historic publisher. Of the video, Martell says:

“In our society, a black body unapologetically taking up space is revolutionary in itself. Jamila goes even further by rocking out to a song named after Zora Neale Hurston in a library filled with hundred of thousands of pieces of black literature. The production is a celebration of black people living in their essence and that undeniable energy transmits on camera.”

Get a look and listen to “ZORA” below.

Pre-order LEGACY! LEGACY!here, and check out the cover art and track listing below.

Track Listing
BETTY
ZORA
GIOVANNI
SONIA (ft. Nitty Scott)
FRIDA
EARTHA
MILES
MUDDY
BASQUIAT (ft. Saba)
SUN RA (ft. theMIND and Jasminfire)
OCTAVIA
BALDWIN (ft. Nico Segal)
BETTY (for Boogie)